Blogs I Love...Scratch That....Let's Call it People I Used to Know

“We read to know that we are not alone.”
― William Nicholson

I started this post because I had just read something amazingly hilarious and wacky from The Bloggess.  The Bloggess is famous.  And fabulous.  And hysterically funny if you get into a wackier sense of humor.  People everywhere love her.  You should check her out.

BUT, back to the sideline that I veered off to which became the whole of this blog post (I get sidetracked from my sidetracks FAR too often...maybe Thing 1 is right and I really DO have Adult ADD...which is another aside altogether, isn't it?).

Oooookkaaayyyy.  So, I started to write this post about other blogs (and I will, eventually, write another blog post about that) and then I found the above quote which kicked off this post.  I have NO idea who William Nicholson is but it made me think of a guy who roomed with my Ex-Husband in college who eventually became MY roommate because I totally shacked up before I was married in a house with my Ex-Husband and his roommates.

Google logo.  It's a pic! It's a verb!

I have NO idea what became of that guy.  And we LIVED together.  So I Googled him. 

• I got 52,300 results.
• He shares the name of a famous "footballer" (a.k.a. "soccer player").
• There are 68 profiles who match his name on LinkedIn.
• Someone who shares his name is a prolific author who writes about jazz.
• There are multiple Twitter accounts related to the name.
• There were literally HUNDREDS of images associated with the name but not a single one (unless he's had some SERIOUS plastic surgery) were of the guy I knew.

I haven't thought of this guy since...well...I guess since I moved out of that house.  And it appears he disappeared off the face of the planet.  What HAPPENED TO HIM?  Now, I can't get him out of my head.  And we weren't even really friends.

So, then, I started thinking about OTHER people I've known who I simply...don't know anymore.  And I started Googling.

A girl I knew when I moved to this tiny town in southern, CO in the 6th grade for about 6 months:

• 14,200 results.
• 6 people share her name in Colorado.
• Someone who shares her name is an A-MAZING photographer.
•  There is only ONE LinkedIn profile for her name AND the person lives in CO.  Could THAT be her?
• Nope.  Found a picture of the above person.  Not her.
• Someone who shares her name received the 2005 Notary Notary Honoree award. Did you KNOW that Notary Publics have an award?  I had no idea.
• There were lots and lots of Google images but I got bored with the search before I looked through them all.

A boy who had a crush on me in high school.  Wait, I don't remember the kid's name.  That won't help.  Hmm.  I KNOW.  A boy who I went on...one date?...with in high school.

• Only 3,960 results!
• 13 profiles on LinkedIn.
• Several Twitter accounts linked to the name.
• A person who shares his name is a youth pastor in Iowa.
• His name is preceded on one Web site by the words The Man, The Myth, The Legend.  That made me laugh for a variety of reasons.
• I struck pay dirt and found a reference to the ACTUAL person, his wife and his college-aged daughter.  

After I found the third long-lost person, I lost interest.  Actually, I lost interest in the middle of the search for the second person but I figured three would be a good sample.  Guys are easier to find than women.  If anyone Googled MY maiden name they would get 272,000 results.  That's more than all three searches combined because my maiden name was SUPER common and SUPER bo-ring.  And you would never find me under that name anyway.  I'm such a MYSTERY, right?  (Except when you consider that if you Google my current name, you will get 534 results...which are ALL related to me...I'm kinda easy to find.)

So, it was fun for a few minutes going through the wayback machine.  Of course, most of the people that I used to know I can't seem to remember their freakin' names now.  It's pretty hard to Google "that guy I worked with in that temp job right out of college."  OK, I just did and got 242 MILLION results.  Still, I don't think I'll ever find that guy...OR remember his name.  C'est la vie.

Does anyone else go off on these nutty sidetracks or am I alone in my insanity? 

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